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The Police Department is unilaterally proposing to change the City's parade permit rules (PDF) and under these new rules, the NYPD will have the power to stop any ten or more cyclists "proceeding together" if one of them breaks any traffic rules, law or regulation.

By Aaron Donovan

9:31 PM EST on November 20, 2006

The Police Department is unilaterally proposing to change the City’s parade permit rules (PDF) and under these new rules, the NYPD will have the power to stop any ten or more cyclists “proceeding together” if one of them breaks any traffic rules, law or regulation.

Simply put, this means that you can be arrested for the conduct of others. If you are riding around Central Park, or on any city street, and find yourself with a group of cyclists, affiliated or not, and one cyclist rides through a red light, doesn’t have a bell or rolls outside of a bike lane, a police officer could stop the entire group and arrest everyone for parading without a permit.

The Police Department is also proposing that every bike ride with thirty or more cyclists must apply for a parade permit and an NYPD-approved route. If the ride does not obtain a permit or people stray from the police-approved route, even if they are obeying all laws, every rider will be subject to arrest.

Under these new rules, bicycle clubs, youth groups, health organizations and community and civic groups, even you and your friends, will have to obtain NYPD clearance for every single bike ride. It means these law abiding citizens will have to obtain parade permits for all of their group bike rides or that they will have to turn people away and cap their events at thirty people.

Before or after your testimony at the hearing on this subject, voice your opposition at the rally outside Police HQ.

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

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